‘Fuel control not to blame’: FAA rules out mechanical fault in fatal Air India Boeing 787 crash

AAIB has urged the public not to determine causes while the investigation is ongoing.

The new leader of the US Federal Aviation Administration said the deadly crash of an Air India Boeing Co. 787 jet last month was unlikely to have been caused by a mechanical issue with the plane or inadvertent movement of the aircraft’s fuel control switches.

“We can say with a high level of confidence is it doesn’t appear to be a mechanical issue with the Boeing fuel control unit,” FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford told reporters at a Wisconsin air show Thursday, according to a report by Reuters. “We feel very comfortable that this isn’t an issue with inadvertent manipulation of fuel control,” the report said.

Investigators, led by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau and with the assistance of the US National Transportation Safety Board, have been probing what caused Air India Flight 171 to crash on June 12, killing 260 people on board and on the ground.

A preliminary report released by the AAIB found that the two fuel control switches on the 787 Dreamliner transitioned to the “cutoff” position immediately after the aircraft lifted off, starving the engines of fuel. While the move was reversed about 10 seconds later, it was too late to avert the crash.

A cockpit voice recording from the aircraft revealed that one pilot, since identified by Bloomberg News as First Officer Clive Kunder, asked the other, Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, why he moved the switches. The captain replied that he hadn’t. The key question investigators have been trying to answer is how and why the switches were flipped.

AAIB has urged the public not to determine causes while the investigation is ongoing. NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy also said last week that it’s too soon to draw conclusions after reports surfaced that the captain of the plane likely moved the switches.